I am an instructor teaching guitar lessons out of my home in Cedar Park, TX. I also teach general music theory, jazz/rock/blues improvisation and a variety of other subjects related to music. I have been teaching for nearly 20 years and have taken students from early beginners through advanced professional musicians. My background is in jazz composition and theory, and I also have a myriad of experience playing with blues, rock, pop, jazz and other bands and teach from this direct experience perspective.
Rates: $50 per lesson, lessons run approximately one hour
Location: my house, some exceptions apply
Method: I teach a fundamental method for guitar, beginning with technique, then working through music theory and music application on the guitar. Generally speaking I focus on music comprehension, listening skills, and creative/ensemble skills which are appropriate for an improvisational player in a rock/pop/jazz environment. Creative skills and improvisation are critical for gutiarists in contemporary bands, as well as understanding fundamentals of what makes a good arrangement, tone, equipment, on top of excellent technique and musicianship. I don't typically teach you to play a certain song or style. Instead I give the students the tools with which they are free to create music however they see fit.
Ideal Student: The ideal student for my teaching style is self-motivated and can maintain good discipline. This applies to advanced students, or beginners. The key to success is practice and commitment.
Group rates and clinics are available
For more information regarding guitar or other music lessons, contact me by email.
A note to parents considering a guitar for their child:
Many times parents ask me about guitars for their children, often for their first guitar or what kind of guitar would be recommended. Invariably my input is consistent. Hopefully this will help summarize it.
First of all, you have to ask yourself, why do you want your child to have a guitar? Do you want them to play it, learn to play it, and play music for the rest of their life? Or is it just a toy that they are asking for but you reasonably do not expect them to really use for its intended purpose? Make a fair and honest assesment. If it's truly your intent that your child is provided a chance to learn to play music and perhaps play for the rest of their life, then the most important thing is to make sure they do not lose interest. This is the place where your choice of instruments can really make a difference.
First of all,.you have to consider the age of the child, and in what manner are they asking for a guitar. I almost always advise parents to wait until their child is begging for a guitar before they buy one. This will avoid feeding a potential whimsical passing phase. For most boys, their interest in music is not so much about a love for music as it is that they have noticed that the girls at school seem to be easily impressed by musicians. For girls, they tend to be much more interested in singing or writing songs, and the instrument is just something they can use to accomplish this goal. I stress that these are usually just the first steps. Eventually kids who are really going to eventually become lifetime musicians will get caught on the hook of making music and get into music for the sake of music itself, but not generally at the beginning. In general, I find that kids over the age of about 10 are more able to make the choice to play music, and among the musicians I know who are adults and have played seriously into adulthood, nearly all of them began playng music between the ages of about 11 and 14. Of course, most of these musicians are men, and most of them between 11 and 14 were interested in impressing girls.I miust admit, if I were not a musician, I seriously doubt that I would have attracted any woman in the league of my wife.
OK, the other thing that many parents of music-interested children don't routinely understand is guitar economics. There are essentially two things that may happen after you buy a guitar for your child:
1. they are going to learn to play it, love it and cherish it, and keep it forever
2. they are going to lose interest, stink at playing it, or eventually chunk it in a box of stuff to go to Goodwill or Craigslist
Now I can assure you that no kid is going to learn to play, love and cherish, and remain interested in a guitar that is hard to play, sounds bad, and is not any fun to have in their hands. Also if the guitar does not accomplish their purpose (be it getting girls' attention, or accompanying them while singing, etc.) then it is going to rapidly collect dust. But still the fact remains that there is a reasonable chance that the guitar is going to be abandoned even if it was the perfect one for the job and played like a dream. In this case, you should consider if you can afford the financial loss, and if so, how miuch. What is your purchase budget? What is your plan in case this turns out to be a bust?
Fortunately for those kids living in today's world, modern electric guitars made on CNC machines in China and Indonesia are available at a very low cost with comparably high quality. They can be set up to play very comfortably, they sound reasonably good, and in general they are as good as if not better than some of the more premium guitars that were available when I was a kid. This is good news. So this means you can probably choose an electric guitar that is under $200 for your child, and you will be guaranteed to lose no more than $200. Now, if you are convinced by a guitar salesman that only an American made Fender, Gibson or other guitar is going to "hold its value", consider that if you buy a guitar for $1000, which would be a very entry-level American instrument, the chances of you losing less than $200 if you had to sell it again used are extremely slim. Losing only 20% of its value over a few years still constitutes holding its value extremely well. But the fact is that you will lose less if you spend less to begin with.
Also with electric guitars, it is important to remember that the guitar is just one piece of the puzzle. You must also have an amplifier, and you must probably also have effects pedals or some similar solution in order to keep most boys interested in playing the guitar. The guitar has to look cool, sound cool, and be fun to play. That includes the effects and tones similar to what they hear on their MP3s of their favorite artists.
The other thing to remember is that a $200 electric guitar with light strings on it is very, very easy to play. An electric guitar can be constructed for a low price that will play easier than even some of the most expensive acoustic guitars. On top of that, an electric guitar does not rely nearly as heavily on the string gauge and action height to produce its tone. So you can put light strings on an electric guitar and make the action very low and easy to play, while still having it sound good. On the other hand, stringing an acoustic guitar with .009's will make it sound terrible, and require a professional guitar tech to set it up to play with the correct action.
For all of these reasons, I almost always recommend a solid-body electric, and a brand like Ibanez, Epiphone or Squier, with a maximum price of about $250 for beginners.
OK, so let's boil this all down to real suggestions:
1. Get a solid body electric guitar
2. Select the brand name list, such as Ibanez, Squier and Epiphone and stick to that list and your budget
3. Let your child pick out the guitar!!! It needs to be something that they think looks cool and makes them feel cool.
4. Get an amp with digital effects built in such as a Roland Cube 30 or a Line6 Spider, and get a control pedal to go with it.
5. Your whole budget needs to be on the order of $500+
The exception to this is for girls, who may prefer an acoustic guitar. In this case, I suggest a Seagull Folk for the acoustic guitar, and then put extra-light strings on it. But almost without exception, an acoustic guitar is not going to do the trick for an adolescent boy!